Missing & Peg-Shaped Laterals — Resin-Bonded Bridge & Gum Contouring After Orthodontics

This patient was missing a lateral incisor on one side only. Dr Amit Patel carried out orthodontics to align the teeth and distribute the available space evenly, creating room for a replacement tooth that would sit symmetrically with the lateral incisor on the opposite side.

The missing tooth was replaced with a resin-bonded bridge — a false tooth held in place by a thin wing bonded directly to the back of the neighbouring tooth, rather than needing crowns on either side. Because no drilling or preparation of the adjacent teeth is required, it's a genuinely conservative way to replace a single missing tooth, and it's bonded rather than screwed or cemented into place. Modern resin-bonded bridges can now be made predictably in full porcelain rather than the traditional metal-backed design, giving a far more natural, translucent result than older versions of this treatment.

Before the bridge itself was made, the soft tissue in the gap was carefully moulded to create the right seating for the new tooth — so it would appear to emerge naturally from the gum, the way a real tooth does, rather than looking like it had simply been placed on top of the gum surface. That detail is often what separates a bridge that reads as artificial from one that looks completely natural.